Smiling
by skyeward
Summary: Cross-posted from Tumblr. Korra isn't a very good girlfriend most of the time, but the times when she is are breathtaking. Korrasami, prompt was 'how Korra makes Asami smile,' but I got a little off-track.


Korra is not, as a general rule, a very good girlfriend. She is forgetful and impatient, brash, temperamental, and sometimes overly aggressive - in bed and out. The one Asami can handle - even enjoy, although she'd never admit that to anyone. The other sets her blood to boiling, and is the reason behind their most recent fight - which is itself the reason that Asami is sleeping alone tonight. The Avatar stormed out in the middle of their argument and hasn't yet come back.

It isn't terribly out of character - Asami imagines her lover perched on a cliff somewhere, leaning on Naga and talking to herself, or on an unknown scrap of beach, bending all her anger out.

What she doesn't imagine is the creak of the door as it oh-so-slowly swings open, admitting the light from the hall and a compact form slightly shorter than her own. She holds very still, her eyes as close to shut as she can make them and still see Korra's silhouette approach.

"Asami," murmurs the familiar voice, from close to her face - Korra had knelt beside the bed.

"Asami," she repeats, and the taller girl opens her eyes, meeting liquid blue orbs that still send a shiver down her spine sometimes.

"Korra," she responds equally softly, her voice rough, "I'm-"

She's cut off.

"I'm sorry," Korra blurts, blushing, "I was wrong to yell at that guy, and you were right to tell me off for it. And I'm sorry. I realized it right as I was walking out the door, but I was so mad that I couldn't stop. I didn't know what to do, so I…well, for once in my life I asked someone for advice and actually listened to it."

"Who did you ask?" Asami is honestly curious - who could Korra have possibly gotten relationship advice from?

"Lin, of all people. I was just stomping around the streets being mad at myself, and she pulls up in her satomobile and tells me to stop scaring the locals. I blabbed the whole thing, and she called me names. Lots of names." Korra ducks her head, but continued.

"She told me to just tell you that I was wrong and that I'm sorry, and maybe a gift would…would help. So," the Water Tribe girl rushed on, pulling something out from behind her back, "I made you this. That's why I was gone so long. I know it's not very good, but-"

It's her turn to be cut off, as Asami sits up and takes the item from her, flicking on the bedside lamp to look at it. Turning the small figure over in her hands, she gasps softly - it is unmistakably herself and Korra, rendered in some kind of striated brown-and-cream stone flecked with spots of blue and green. It depicts Korra standing in front, holding a stone in one hand and a twirl of water in the other, with Asami behind her, arms and hair draped over the shorter girl's shoulders. The tiny statue is no longer than her hand, but the details are incredible. It is the careful use of those flecks of colour that do her in, though - her eyes are green, Korra's blue, even the tiny bit of water is blue. It's utterly perfect.

Asami begins to cry.

Korra panics.

"I'm sorry," the Avatar cries, trying to take the figure from Asami's clutching hands, "I know it's bad, but I didn't think you'd hate it so m-"

"Korra shut UP," Asami manages through her tears, her laugh caught in a hiccup when Korra shuts her mouth so fast that the click is audible, "It's not bad, it's the most…the most beautiful and loving and thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me in my life. And I love it. And I love you. Even when you're acting dumb."

"I love you too," Korra mumbles, still trying to wipe away her girlfriend's tears - they do something to her brain, she can't help it.

The statue still in one hand, Asami leans up and kisses those soft brown lips, smoothing away the frown. The gentle touch lingers for a long moment before she finally pulls away, a smile breaking through on her wet face.

"Thank you," she repeats, wiping her face one last time on her nightgown sleeve, "Just thank you."

"You taste like salt," Korra replies.

"You," Asami sighs, setting the figurine on her night table and pulling the Avatar into bed by her collar, "Ruin moments."

Wrapping herself around the warm solidness of Korra's body, Asami goes to sleep - still smiling.


End file.
